thatguy

A good friend of mine is planning on getting a 3rd gen Rx7 TT. However he heard a rumor that those 1.3L rotary's need to be pretty much rebuilt at 120k or so. Is this true??

thatguy

anyone???

Python2121

they last...

forever

Achance

i remember reading a issue of super street, and they had problems with vaccum hoses dry rotting because of the heat from the turbos. But I don't know about the engines.

thatguy

thats some good info, ill read up on that

AK_MOBBER

Your talking about a wankel engine right???

They last practically forever since they are so simple. I guess after 120K there might be some wear but you would only need to rebuild it if you noticed less power than before.

I found a cool site about engines you have to check out-----> http://www.keveney.com/Engines.html Its got a bunch on animated engines...

LegendC

Yeah, its true. The rotary is a very good design but the apex seals tend to go. Also, older RX's with the sequential turbos are known for all kinds of electical and mechanical gremlins

acuraman32cl

ive heard froma friend that some sort of ceramic part in the engine always cracks or something, which always made me think that they need alot of repairs. but after reading these posts, i guess they are pretty good.

JLai

Take a look at RX7 cars for sale...Most engine rebuilds are at 40K miles. Problem with the seals.

Big big reliability problems. Modding doesn't help either, but even stock ones are known to have problems before 50K.

thatguy

Yeah, I also found that they have a kot of problems with apex seals or something of that matter, i also found a site that had info on how to cure most of the probs with the car, its like 35 dollars worth of hoses, but like 6 hours worth of labor.... Thats the downside the labor, always the labor

haiduc

the apex seals are the ones to go, keeping an eye on the oil is important also.

other than the mechanical part which is a PITA.... they are awesome engines

Python2121

ok well i asked my dads friend, who used to own an rx-7 TT. he said he didn't have a problem until 240,000 miles when he sold the car.

nice site, btw, AK_MOBBER

CLSmike

my best friend has an rx7 tt and hes on his second motor after i think 60k miles if you want to keep the motor from shtting out you have to go with a single turbo setup and get rid of the sequetial they cause alot of the problems nd also the apex seal is basically as bad as our trannies....get ready to invest in an oil company cause thats what they burn...the rotary can be amazing with an amazing amount of money ...but hey you might find a good one.

fahoumh

don't most of the problems stem from overheating b/c of the inadequate radiator?

JLai

Most problems are due to seals...but another stems from the aggressive ECU. You see amazing gains from boltons, not just because its a forced induction setup, but because the ECU responds very very aggressively to mods. Downside is this also creates alot of wear and tear and doesn't hold up well at all. Needs to be tuned, can't just leave it as is.

rebeltruce

I've owned 1st and 2nd GEN RX-7's had over 200,000 miles on the 1st GEN when I sold it. It still ran like a top. Had over 175,000 on the 2nd GEN when I traded it in on the CL.

Never had any major engine troubles. After burn valves, a couple sensors, exhaust, all just normal stuff. Of course neither was turbo'd. I've also heard about all of the above mentioned, turbo problems, that's the main reason I bought the CL instead of a 3rd GEN RX-7.

One thing though, unless you do the work yourself they can be very expensive to maintain.

rickm

I had 218K on my '88 RX-& convertible and never had any problem out of the ordinary, just regular maintenance. The only thing about the old ones is they flood pretty easily then you have to go through this big procedure to unflood it, you couldn't just hold your foot down on the pedal like most cars. Luckilly, it would only happen if you started the car and shut right off when the engine was cold it was easy to remember once you did it one time to always let it warm up a bit before you shut it down.

gto2050

The apex seals go quite often and that is what they addressed in the next generation of rotaries. They moved the exhaust ports (I believe) to take them further away from the seals, etc. Still great engines though! Wind and wind and wind.

Bill Faure

From a racing engine point of view Mazda's rotary is one of the most reliable ever. 2nd only to Porsche's flat 6. It's funny Mazda has a commerical primarily running on Speed Channel that boasts in 20 years of racing Mazda engines never burned a piston, threw a rod, broke a cam, etc. Of course rotary engines don't have any of those items, but that's kind of the point. Mazda's rotary has won several IMSA GTO championships as well as the 24 hours of Le Mans. Back when Tommy Kendal was racing a RX7 in IMSA GTU at one point he put 12k racing miles on a rotary without a single breakdown of the block. AMAZING! 12k racing miles.

whiteknight

A coworker of mine has a '94 RX7 and she's putting in her 4th engine!!!!!!! The first 2 were under warranty but she's forked over 5 grand each time for the last two. Sje does have the twin turbo model and she drives it like she's in the Indy 500 so I guess I shouldn't be surprised ...........

rebeltruce

I remember this problem, what a pain in the ass. Had some brake work done on my "91" Convertible once and the mechanic didn't know about the problem. He started the car up to move it across the parking lot and shut it down right away after moving it. The car flooded, they tried to charge me for new plugs and some other crap!!!! I told them they should have called me before changing the plugs, the car was just flooded. Anyway, I ended up with a new set of plugs for nothing. I miss that car....................